RIP Heath Ledger

I was going to take a pass on all the Heath Ledger eulogizing. He died too young, another footnote on Hollywood’s long list of deaths-come-too-soon. However, he wasn’t a shining star, with his greatest performance to date being overshadowed by Jake Gyllenhaal. He was a solid-yet-unspectacular member of the Tinseltown Aussie Connection, far below the [...]

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Francis Lawrence’s I Am Legend (2/4 stars)

They had to turn it into Resident Evil. Matheson’s novel is a meditation on what a man would become if he were all alone. This was captured very nicely by director Francis Lawrence and The Fresh Prince through the first half of the film. The eerie, empty sprawl of a deserted New York City. The [...]

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It sells for so little

I don’t know who you are. Please believe. There is no way I can convince you that this is not one of their tricks. But I don’t care. I am me, and I don’t know who you are, but I love you. I have a pencil. A little one they did not find. I am [...]

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Gore Verbinski’s Pirates of the Carribean 2 (2.5 out of 4 stars)

No, I’m not hating on a film that’s proven to be very popular. Dead Man’s Chest (DMC, no I’m not typing that ludicrous monstrosity of a title out) is a long-winded, self-indulgent poorly-paced second installment to Disney’s new moneymaking franchise. It suffers from the second installment sickness of having no beginning and no end, and [...]

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Tribeca Film Festival Baseball Movie Poll @ ESPN

Wouldn’t you know it. ESPN is running a bracket for the best baseball film of all time. The winner will be screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, which is showcasing sports films. It’s all over here at  Tribeca Film Festival-Baseball Poll Round 2. All three of the films I wrote up are still alive in [...]

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A Celluloid Three-bagger

Baseball season just kicked off, and I’m marking this event by revisiting some of the baseball films in my library. The first three I picked are fairly well-known and in the case of at least one of them, much-loved. Strangely, only one of these three films is *really* about baseball, and it’s the one that’s [...]

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Martin Scorsese’s The Departed (3 out of 4 stars)

It’s a testament to how underwhelmed I was with this year’s Academy Awards class that I didn’t bother to do my usual picks. I had very little interest in The Queen and The Last King of Scotland, and having seen the other three contenders, decided that I didn’t really give a shit this year. That [...]

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Galactica’s (Battle)Star Fading

I knew LOST was in trouble halfway through the second season, when they dumped most of the key characters from the first season down the hole and left them pressing a button. At the same time, they added a slew of new characters, advanced the main story arc at a snail’s pace (if at all) [...]

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I have nothing more to say.

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College Hoops meets The Princess Bride

I’ve already addressed my man-crush on Bill Simmons’s writing on this weblog before. He does it again, but this time, he just quotes something that someone sent him. It’s another nexus between two of my interests – sports and film. And not just any film, it’s The Princess Bride that we’re talking about here! Bill [...]

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